Tom Tom to Pu'u O Kona
Tom-Tom to Pu’u O Kona – April 21, 2012 I never did the Tom-Tom trail before, hell I didn’t know where the trailhead was. After today, there was no doubt that I would find it and do it again. Tom-Tom is a windward ridge in Waimanalo. The trail is the easiest out of all the southern end windward ridges on the Koolaus. In ancient Hawaiian times, kukini were able to use the Tom-Tom trail to hike from Waimanalo valley and deliver messages to Ali’i Chiefs in the many Hawaii Kai valleys. Tom-Tom is a trail named after two Toms back in the early 1920s, HTMC named the trail “TomTom” to honor Tom McGuire (a forester) and Tom Cadle (HTMC president) who rediscovered the ancient Hawaiian route (Nate Yuen, HawaiianForest.com). The plan today was for Ikaika and I to hike from Tom-Tom to the Kuliouou state trail. We staged one car at Kala’au place near the Kuliouou trailhead and then made the long drive to Waimanalo. (Long is relative) We would park on Maunawaialoa Street and start the Tom-Tom t...